Re: Three-world model

From: Kevin McDonald <kpmcdona_at_0KEN6h5cI8uTdhYtKoGkPz2XL8Xtmiawuw_NZ4ouESuY2mJxe_Ie5PFcO6GEKtW5CwT>
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 13:06:43 -0500

On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 10:37 AM, Peter Larsen <p3larsen_at_Fu7qeJAzA2U23nmW7OJzgOZXEppKTFrbEJSvnGuO706Wr4zkd-AyBS0dQUs1VeDSWK6kgC8yNg0.yahoo.invalid> wrote:

> <snip>
>
> Which doesn't mean that you can't have a character with that feel -- you
> could easily have a swordsman like Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden
> Dragon -- someone who has a mystic outlook but follows a god or sorcerous
> school that gives powers that the player can use and feel good about. So
> the
> character is mystic culturally without being mystic mechanically.
>

This is how I run it also, and for what it is worth I think it fits a lot of real world eastern mythology. The examples I have seen in Indian/Tibetan Buddhism is that the practices that a mystic uses to transcend the world give magical powers as a by-product. These powers are considered inconsequential to the mystics, who warn their students not to become ensnared by a fascination with them.

Further, you don't even need to be a mystic at all to achieve these powers - you just need to do the things that a mystic does, ie meditate and achieve ever stronger powers of concentration.

Therefore I have three kinds of "mystical" characters in my game:

1. Characters that have yogic powers achieved through following a particular practice. These can be modeled in a number of ways. Li Mu-bai's powers, for example, seem to me to be like sorcery. He studied a manual that teaches specific practices yielding supernatural skills. I don't think his mysticism had anything to do with his powers. Alternately, you could use theism to emulate yogis that attempt to achieve unity with a particular meditative deity and can manifest powers in emulation of that deity (i.e. feats).
2. Characters that follow a mystic tradition that gives powers as an unsought by-product of the above practices. These characters can be get pulled back into the world due to their attachments and/or aversions. These are "failed" mystics of a minor sort, although they might get back on the wagon later after the immediate crisis has passed. Li Mu-bai is a good example of this. In fact he started out as a non-mystic practicing a magic producing discipline, then became a mystic, then was pulled back into the world by his passions.
3. Characters that are true mystics can transcend reality because they have a profound understanding of the illusory nature of reality. These characters are beyond what most PCs will play, and fall into two categories.

The first are successful mystics that only appear to be using their powers to affect the world. In fact these enlightened beings are manifesting according to the desires of worldly people in the same way that the moon appears in a pool of water. Most enlightened beings in Buddhist pantheons are like this.

The second are true failed mystics that came close to enlightenment but instead succumbed to nihilism or some other flaw. They have great powers but have doomed themselves and those around them. Sheng Seleris is an example of this.

Naturally, this is all from my personal background and training. The HQ writers will certainly have their own. YGWV.

-Kevin McD

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